By Shuaib Sadiq
Kaduna – A High Court on Thursday ordered the Department of State Services (DSS) to transfer the leader of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), Sheik Ibrahim El-Zakzaky, and his wife, Zinat, to the Nigerian Correctional Centre, Kaduna, to allow his lawyers easy access to him.
Justice Gideon Kurada, the trial Judge’s order was sequel to the application by Haruna Magashi, counsel to the IMN leader, at resumed hearing of the main suit in Kaduna, eight months after the last hearing in April.
The IMN leader and his wife Zinat are standing trial over allegations of culpable homicide, unlawful assembly and disruption of public peace, among other charges, in another court.
Kurada had on April 25 adjourned the trial of the IMN leader indefinitely to enable him serve on the panel of the Presidential and National Assembly Elections Petitions Tribunal, in Yobe.
At the resumed hearing of the case on Thursday, Magashi who held the brief for Femi Falana, SAN, the lead counsel to the IMN leader and his wife, applied for his clients transfer to the Kaduna Prisons, now known as Correctional Centre.
Magashi told newsmen shortly after the case was adjourned to Feb. 6, 2020, for hearing, that the team of counsel to the IMN leader had always had difficulty whenever they want to see him at the DSS detention facility.
He added that the Counsel would have easy access to the IMN leader and his wife if transferred to the correctional facility in Kaduna and that would speed up the trial of his clients.
The order equally took the team of prosecution by the storm, when the prosecution counsel, led by Dari Bayero, appeared in court set to continue with the trial of the IMN leader and his wife.
Bayero , also Director Prosecution at the Kaduna State Ministry of Justice, told newsmen that his team was ready for the trial, but it was stalled.
He, however, said that the team would appear set for the trial on the adjourned date of Feb. 6, 2020.
